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The new futties fan vote players are not loans
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Bruh they did this for the first one last year too
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Havertz guaranteed win lol
100 Thieves x Rocket Mortgage Ultimate Fan Experience
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Hello, my name is Casey Loftis-Boatwright. As the title says, thanks to Rocket Mortgage and 100 Thieves, I got to partake in an all-expense-paid trip to Los Angeles to have a VIP fan experience to Week 8 of NALCS. I suppose I'm writing this post to just talk about how amazing the whole experience was, and how grateful I am to 100 Thieves and the contest sponsor Rocket Mortgage for making it all possible.
TL;DR: Thank you to 100 ThievesxRocket Mortgage contest and to everyone who loves League of Legends. My experience was fantastic, and it's thanks to all of you.
Everyone with social media knows how often "contests" pop onto their timelines. This particular contest showed up on my feed and I just thought, you know, "What the hell? Someone wins these and it might be me." I took some time to look at the rules of the contest, sent my tweet... and pretty much immediately forgot about entering. You know, because nobody actually expects to win.
Except a few days later, I got a notification congratulating me on winning. The next few weeks had me extremely psyched up for the trip, and finally, the time came to actually leave.
Here's the part where I get incredibly impressed: going into the trip, I expected to arrive in Santa Monica at my hotel and be met with an itinerary, and that would be that. I thought I would be left on my own to figure things out, and to get places. However, from the moment our schedule began on Saturday, August 11th, I knew it wouldn't be like that. Right away, 100 Thieves x Rocket Mortgage treated me and three other guys (another contest winner, and each of our guests) to lunch and gift bags. I mean, these were the people who hosted the contest, and they were actually spending time with us, taking the time to meet us rather than just throwing a schedule at us like they very easily could have done.
From brunch, we got taken to the LCS studio for the actual VIP Fan Experience. As a small-town Iowa boy, I never thought I'd get to experience LCS live and in person, but it happened. We got front-row seats right away Saturday, and got to watch 100 Thieves completely destroy Echo Fox. Everything was insanely perfect. Following the game, we watched Aphro's interview, and then were led to the truly VIP part of our weekend at LCS: access to the player lounge. This was the experience of a lifetime. I don't really know if I can say that enough.
My guest and I spent the remainder of Saturday at LCS, watching all the games either from the studio or the player lounge. I think I spent the whole day in complete disbelief of where I was. Sunday, though, managed to get cooler; 100 Thieves let us actually tour the player house. We even got to see the StockX locker room in person (which probably would have been cooler for me if I knew what Supreme was, but I digress). Following our tour was spending more time with all the hosts of the contest, which shows their phenomenal hospitality. Honestly, my expectations for the weekend were by far surpassed, just through genuine human connections 100 Thieves gave to us.
After watching the unfortunate 100 Thieves loss to TSM on Sunday, we even got to meet some of the 100 Thieves Fortnite guys. I want to talk just a little bit on how cool that was, too, even though I've literally never played that game. The other contest winner, Tyler, really didn't know League too well; he entered because he's a fan of Nadeshot and of their Fortnite guys. A lot of teams and companies would have probably just been like "Oh, that's too bad, wrong game," but 100 Thieves went above and beyond and made absolutely sure that Tyler and his guest would get to meet the Fortnite guys. This, to me, blew me away. That didn't have to be done, but 100 Thieves made it happen anyway. Making that meetup happen says a lot about the brand they're building.
At the end of the weekend on Sunday night, 100 Thieves x Rocket Mortgage even treated us out to supper with the League of Legends team. Getting to be in that casual environment with all the guys I honestly look up to was incredible. Like I said, I'm a small-town Iowa guy; if you had told me at the start of this summer that by the end of it, I'd have sat and talked with pr0lly about my interests and what I'm studying in college, I would have called you an idiot, but it happened. Typing this, I'm still in shock at just how perfect this weekend was, and wish I could just go back and re-live it all.
All-in-all, this post is a massive thank you. Thank you to 100 Thieves and to Rocket Mortgage for putting on this contest and for blessing me with this amazing experience. Thank you to Riot Games (yes, even them) for allowing all this to happen. And thank all of you, the League of Legends community, for loving this game and creating the possibility for these teams to exist. Without us, everything goes away. So thank you.
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Glad to hear you had fun out there! Shoutout rocket mortgage tho.
What happens when you put undecided on loans for your FAN??
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Going thru my FAN, and was offered $3500 in direct subsidized loans and $600 in university loan. I’m not sure if I’ll need them, if I put undecided am I able to accept them at a later date/any time?? Or would I have to accept before week 0?? I haven’t done any research on loans since my financial aid is covering most but I don’t want to blindly accept them or decline them and not be able to get a loan if needed. Any help is appreciated 🙏🙏
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I would highly suggest choosing undecided and then submitting your FAN. There's no real cons if you do so. If you put undecided it'll give you the option of requesting a new FAN and accepting them at a later date and time (I believe anytime. Though IIRC it would delay when funds are available as they only disperse at the beginning of the quarter.) You can also lower the amounts if you don't want to take the entire offer.
If you decline and decide you want them later, you'll have to reach out to the FA office to get it reinstated if you find you need it. Either way, depending on the type of award, the funds can only be awarded if they are still available (and they may not always be).
https://financialaid.ucla.edu/file/1cf8cc91-321a-4884-94c2-77676ca7fc68
Why I'm not a fan of the "invest in your SIPP then use to clear mortgage" strategy and why I feel it's anti-FIRE
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In the ongoing infamous "overpay mortgage vs investing" debate, I know the common recommended approach from a mathematical standpoint is to stretch your mortgage for as long as possible (ideally interest only) to maximise leverage and use all of your spare money to put into your SIPP for the tax relief + long-term compound growth, then use the tax free 25% lump sum from your SIPP to clear your mortgage balance when you retire.
On paper, I get it. Purely from a numbers POV it makes total sense.
But my problem with it is that I don't want a big mortgage payment every month until I'm 57 (or potentially older if/when they increase the SIPP access age again). I (35M) worked out that I could be mortgage free by 45 if I throw everything at the £400k balance (on a £650k property) over the next 10 years. This means I could enjoy 12+ years between age 45 to 57+ of being completely debt free.
12+ years is a long time. During this time I could have the freedom whilst still relatively young to go part-time, start a business, change career to something more enjoyable, travel more, etc... Not having a large mortgage weighing me down would give me the freedom to pursue new, exciting challenges and almost be semi-FIRE (aka only requiring a small income from some low-stress, part-time work to cover low monthly expenses).
By putting all of my money into my SIPP, I'd be forcing myself to have to work until I'm 57+ just to keep up with the monthly payments. It's basically enforcing a FIRE age of at least 57 (probably 60 by the time I get there, let's be honest), which feels too late to me and feels restrictive and anti-FIRE.
So, financially/mathematically I know it's not the most efficient way. But from the view of wanting to be free as quickly as possible and for as long as possible, I'm going to use a mixture of S&S ISA, cash ISA, and direct overpayments to demolish this mortgage and find financial freedom through completely debt-free living.
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Personally, while it's a valid choice if it brings you peace of mind, I think you should redo the math before committing
Clearing a £400K mortgage in just 10 years at ~4% means you're dumping in ~£4,100/mo, which means you're a higher or additional rate tax payer. I don't think I need to explain the tax advantages of contributing to a pension as a HRT payer.
If you throw "everything" at the mortgage and clear it by the time you're 45 then your pension will be smaller, and you'll likely have to keep working to fund a decent retirement anyway.
Yes, you have freedom to take lower paid or part time work but you're still likely going to have to work and your overall total contributions to pension will need to be higher, you'll likely have to work longer, and you'll likely be a lower rate tax payer so paying a higher marginal cost to use a pension.
My strategy has been to throw £80K/yr in to ISAs and pensions, and I plan to do so for another few years before turning pension contributions down to employer match only for another ~16-18 years. Doing so, given conservative assumptions, will save me ~£100K in overall contributions for the same outcome over that timeframe compared to a lower but steady contributions over the next 20 years.
Trying to catch up after throwing everything at the mortgage would cost me hundreds of thousands of £ in lost growth, and I have no guarantees I'll be as well paid in the future.
Cutting away pension contributions in a few years is also going to free up money for childcare and spending more on enjoying life, and I won't be worrying about my retirement.
Not to mention, I don't plan to live in my London home forever. When I retire I'll likely downsize or move somewhere cheaper, so why dump all that money in to something I'm not going to keep ?
Will shit hit the fan in october
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I’ve been talking to a lot of people who are just straight up not going to pay their student loan payments once the pause ends and I’m wondering what people’s theories are for how things will unfold in the next few months? I’m wondering if we will be looking at a debt strike
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Let me tell you a story my grandfather told me. When he was young he was in the merchant Marines. On one of the ships he was on the cook..and therefore the food..was terrible. The crew were all complaining to each other and got themselves fired up to go complain to the captain. Grandpa offered to be the spokesperson as long as the rest of the crew was behind him. They all agreed enthusiastically. Grandpa marches up to the captains cabin and pounds on the door. Captain throws open the door and yells..what do you want Cutler? Grandpa responds..me and the crew want a change in the food! Captain says..you and who? Grandpa looks behind him..nobody was there.
All or at least most of the people you are talking to saying they won't pay their loans are the crew. The fact is that federal loans have collection options to ensure repayment and if the loan defaults their credit will tank and they will be charged lots of collection costs. Most people aren't willing to do that.. especially with affordable repayment options such as save. And for those that are considering it.. consider it he fact that defaulting just makes the loan even more expensive.
I'm a big fan of this new headphone hanger from Fiio.
Main Post: I'm a big fan of this new headphone hanger from Fiio.
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I ordered something from Fiio a year or two ago, and for some reason this USB desktop fan was included in the package. Pretty cool of them.
It's a USB-charged, battery-powered fan with four speeds and slots very well into my source chain, which currently consists of the Fidelice DAC/amp and Bottlehead Crack + Speedball. Very airy sounding.